Traditional conference call services may rely on one of two common approaches to schedule a conference call or session to be used for a conference call between two or more geographically separated people. The first approach is to schedule a conference call by using an online interface or by calling a call center. This approach may be most commonly used when the meeting requires unique features or has a number of participants above a given threshold, typically around 150 simultaneous connections. The second approach provides a set of dial-in telephone numbers and a unique passcode for a subscription-type conference call. In order to use the subscription-type service for a conference call, each conference call participant connects to the conference call using the dial-in telephone number and passcode information provided by the organizer or host of the conference call.
The present inventors have recognized several drawbacks to the traditional approaches to conference calling. The first approach requires that the organizer of the call take some action with the service provider to schedule the required resources for the call. This typically adds several steps to process required to schedule the call. One such step is that the organizer is required to distribute to the participants the information required to attend the conference call.
Under the second traditional approach, the arranger is still required to distribute all information to conference participants for connecting to the conference call. The present inventors recognized that this approach represents a significant potential security risk since the dial-in telephone numbers and passcode are typically reused for all of the conference calls conducted by the organizer. While it is possible to generate and use a new subscription, including a new conference access number and/or access code, for each conference call or conference call series, users are burdened by the added steps required to schedule multiple conference calls, each under its own conference access number and/or access code. The burdensome nature of such scheduling results that in practice, the same conference access number and access code are reused for many different meetings by the organizer. This is problematic if the information discussed on any particular conference call is confidential such that a person provided access information to a first call should not receive access to a second call. Yet, if the same subscription information is used for both calls, participants on the first call can access the second call, even if not invited to the second call, because the same conference access number and/or access code is used for both calls.
Regardless of the approach used, when it is time to join the conference call, participants need to look up the telephone access number and access code to be used to join the conference call. For participants connecting from outside of North America, these participants also typically need to look up the telephone number to dial based on their location at the time they are connecting to the conference call. If the telephone access number and access code are in an email, the user will need to find that email to join the call. If the participant is trying to access the call while away from the office or a desktop computer, the participant may be forced to open an email application on the user's mobile device, copy down or memorize the access phone number and passcode and then switch to the mobile device's call function to call the access phone number and then enter the passcode. This burdensome process requires effort on the part of the participants and represents a potentially significant safety risk for those people engaged in operating motor vehicles when they attempt to join a conference call.
The present inventors recognized that it would be desirable to provide a conference scheduling system that reduces the number of steps required for the organizer to schedule a conference call. The present inventors recognized that it would be desirable to eliminate the need for a conference call organizer to distribute call-in information, such as a call in phone number and access code, to the conference participants.
Further the present inventors recognize the need for a conference system that reduces the burden of scheduling and increases per-call security so that only those invited to a call will have access to that call. The present inventors recognized the need for a conference system that does not require the user to look up the conference call access phone number or access code at the time of the conference call. The present inventors recognized the need for a conference system that dials out to participants that are authorized to participate in a given conference call and thereby joins that participant to the conference. Moreover, the present inventors recognized that it would be desirable to schedule a conference call using preexisting software tools such as an email program having calendar functionality.